Ultralong organic phosphorescence holds great promise as an important approach for optical materials and devices. Most of phosphorescent organic molecules with long lifetimes are substituted with heavy atoms or carbonyl groups to enhance the intersystem crossing (ISC), which requires complicated design and synthesis. Here, we report a cyclizationpromoted phosphorescence phenomenon by boosting ISC. Nbutyl carbazole exhibits a phosphorescence lifetime (τ p ) of only 1.45 ms and a low phosphorescence efficiency in the solution state at 77 K due to the lack of efficient ISC. In order to promote its phosphorescence behavior, we explored the influence of conjugation. By linear conjugation of four carbazole units, possible ISC channels are increased so that a longer τ p of 2.24 s is observed. Moreover, by cyclization, the energy gap between the singlet and triplet states is dramatically decreased to 0.04 eV for excellent ISC efficiency accompanied by increased rigidification to synergistically suppress the nonradiative decay, resulting in satisfactory phosphorescence efficiency and a prolonged τ p to 3.41 s in the absence of any heavy atom or carbonyl group, which may act as a strategy to prepare ultralong phosphorescent organic materials by enhancing the ISC and rigidification.
We have recently demonstrated that carbazole-based biradicaloids are promising building blocks in dynamic covalent chemistry. To elucidate their intriguing dynamic covalent chemical properties, it is necessary to understand the physical origin of their biradical nature. To this end, here we focus on two quinoid carbazole systems substituted with dicyanomethylene (DCM) groups via para ( p -Cz-alkyl) or meta positions ( m -Cz-ph), which are able to form cyclophane macrocycles by the formation of long C–C bonds between the bridgehead carbon atoms linked to the DCM groups. We aim at exploring the following questions: (i) How is the biradicaloid character of a quinoid carbazole affected by the substitution position of the DCM groups? (ii) How is the stability of the resulted cyclophane aggregate attained? (iii) How is the dynamic interconversion between the carbazole-based monomers and cyclophane aggregates affected by this subtle change in the substitution pattern position? Density functional theory-based calculations reveal that both p -Cz-alkyl and m -Cz-ph are open-shell biradicals in the ground electronic state, with the DCM substitution in the meta position resulting in a more pronounced biradical character. In contrast, the derivatization via the nitrogen of the carbazole unit is not predicted to affect the biradicaloid character. The spontaneous nature of the cyclophane-based macrocycle formation (i.e., the cyclic tetramer in p -Cz-alkyl and the cyclic trimer and the tetramer in m -Cz-ph) is supported by the negative relative Gibbs free energies calculated at 298 K. Interestingly, cyclic oligomers in which the DCM groups are inserted in the meta position tend to adopt folded conformations with attractive π–π interactions resulting in more stable aggregates; in contrast, note that an extended ring-shaped conformation is acquired for ( p -Cz-alkyl)4. In addition, the larger spin density on the bridgehead carbon atom in the meta-substituted system strengthens the bridging C–C bond in the aggregate forms, hampering its dissociation. In fact, the C–C bond dissociation of ( m -Cz-ph)4 and ( m -Cz-ph)3 was suppressed in solution state, although it was achieved in solid state in response to soft external stimuli (i.e., temperature and grinding). In summary, we report a very comprehensive study aiming at elucidating the challenging chemical properties of carbazole-based biradicaloid systems.
Vapochromic behaviour of porous crystals is beneficial for facile and rapid detection of gaseous molecules without electricity. Toward this end, tailored molecular designs have been established for metal–organic, covalent-bonded and hydrogen-bonded frameworks. Here, we explore the hydrochromic chemistry of a van der Waals (VDW) porous crystal. The VDW porous crystal VPC-1 is formed from a novel aromatic dendrimer having a dibenzophenazine core and multibranched carbazole dendrons. Although the constituent molecules are connected via VDW forces, VPC-1 maintains its structural integrity even after desolvation. VPC-1 exhibits reversible colour changes upon uptake/release of water molecules due to the charge transfer character of the constituent dendrimer. Detailed structural analyses reveal that the outermost carbazole units alone are mobile in the crystal and twist simultaneously in response to water vapour. Thermodynamic analysis suggests that the sigmoidal water sorption is induced by the affinity alternation of the pore surface from hydrophobic to hydrophilic.
This work describes the synthesis and properties of ad icyanomethylene-substituted indolo[3,2-b]carbazole diradical ICz-CN. This quinoidal system dimerises almost completely to (ICz-CN) 2 ,w hich contains two long C(sp 3)À C(sp 3) s-bonds between the dicyanomethylene units. The minor open-shell ICz-CN component in the solid-state mixture was identified by EPR spectroscopy.C yclic voltammetry and UV-visible spectroelectrochemical data, as well as comparison with reference monomerI Cz-Br reveal that the nature of the one-electrono xidation of (ICz-CN) 2 at ambient temperature and ICz-CN at elevated temperature is very similar in all these compounds due to the prevailing localization of their HOMO on the ICz backbone. The peculiar cathodic behaviour reflects the coexistence of (ICz-CN) 2 and ICz-CN. The involvement of the dicyanomethylene groupss tabilizes the close-lying LUMO and LUMO + 1o f(ICz-CN) 2 and especially ICz-CN comparedt oI Cz-Br,r esulting in ad istinctive cathodic response at low overpotentials. Differently from neutralI Cz-CN, its radicala nion and dianion are remarkably stable under ambient conditions. The UV/Vis(-NIR) electronic transitions in parent (ICz-CN) 2 and ICz-CN and their different redox forms have been assigned convincingly with the aid of TD-DFT calculations. The s-bond in neutral(ICz-CN) 2 is cleaved in solution and in the solid-state upon soft external stimuli (temperature, pressure), showing as trong chromism from light yellow to blue-green. Notably,i nt he solid state, the monomeric diradical species is predominantly formed under high hydrostatic pressure (> 1GPa).
In this study, a set of 10 positional indolocarbazole (ICz) isomers substituted with dicyanomethylene groups connected via para or meta positions are computationally investigated with the aim of exploring the efficiency of structural isomerism and substitution position in controlling their optical and electronic properties. Unrestricted density functional theory (DFT), a spin-flip time-dependent DFT approach, and the multireference CASSCF/NEVPT2 method have been applied to correlate the diradical character with the energetic trends (i.e., singlet–triplet energy gaps). In addition, the nucleus-independent chemical shift together with ACID plots and Raman intensity calculations were used to strengthen the relationship between the diradical character and (anti)aromaticity. Our study reveals that the substitution pattern and structural isomerism represent a very effective way to tune the diradical properties in ICz-based systems with meta -substituted systems with a V-shaped structure displaying the largest diradical character. Thus, this work contributes to the elucidation of the challenging chemical reactivity and physical properties of diradicaloid systems, guiding experimental chemists to produce new molecules with desirable properties.
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